Nearly 50 years after the song was first released, Aretha Franklin strode onto the stage at The 38th Annual Kennedy Center Honors in Washington D.C. last night and sat down at a piano to perform "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." From the first chords of the song, Carole King—who wrote the track and was one of the night's honorees—knew exactly what was coming: Franklin was about to steal the show. And from an intimate opening on the piano, to an enormous crescendo that had the legendary singer standing in the middle of the floor, ditching her fur coat, and belting to an entire audience on its feet, Franklin did just that.
Hardly through the first verse, President Obama, who sat next to King, was already wiping his eyes. At 73 years old, Franklin has lost little strength in her voice, and her presence alone is more powerful than ever—powerful enough to bring the leader of the free world to tears.
